Imaging System Mimics Compound Eye for Greater Sensitivity in Robotic Vision

A research team at the School of Engineering of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has developed a novel artificial compound eye system that promises greater cost-efficiency and sensitivity than that of existing market products in small areas. The team expects the device to have applications in robotic vision where it will improve capabilities in navigation, perception, and decision-making.

Mimicking the visual capabilities of compound eyes, the researchers believe that the system can be applied in a wide range of scenarios, such as installing on drones to improve their accuracy and efficiency in tasks like irrigation or emergency rescue in disaster sites. With its high sensitivity, the system can also enable closer collaboration among robots and other connected devices. In the long term, the compound eye system is expected to enhance autonomous driving safety and accelerate the adoption of intelligent transport systems, fostering the development of smart cities.

A biomimetic imaging system developed by researchers at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) mimics the function of compound eyes found in insects. The technology is expected to find use in robotic vision where it could enable greater collaboration between robots and other connected devices. Courtesy of HKUST.

According to the research team led by Fan Zhiyong, Chair Professor at HKUST’s Department of Electronic & Computer Engineering and Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering, the technology represents a significant leap forward in the field of biomimetic vision systems. In this discipline, roboticists have mainly focused on replicating the visual capabilities of insects, which offer a wide field of view and advanced motion-tracking capabilities.

However, integrating compound eye systems into autonomous platforms like robots or drones has been challenging as these systems often suffer from issues related to complexity and stability during deformation, geometry constraints, as well as potential mismatches between optical and detector components.

To address these challenges, Zhiyong’s team developed a pinhole compound vision system by adopting new materials and structures. This system features several key characteristics, including an inherent hemispherical perovskite nanowire array imager with high pixel density to enlarge the imaging field; and a 3D-printed lens-free pinhole array with a customizable layout to regulate incident light and eliminate the blind area between neighboring ommatidia (individual units within an insect’s compound eye).

Owing to its good angular selectivity, a wide field of view, wide spectrum response in monocular and binocular configurations, as well as its dynamic motion tracking capability, the pinhole compound eye not only can accurately locate targets but can also track a moving quadruped robot after incorporated onto a drone.

“This compound eye design is simple, light, and cheap. Although it won’t fully replace traditional cameras, it could be a huge boost in certain robotics applications, such as in a swarm of drones flying in close formation,” Zhiyong said. “By further miniaturizing the device size and increasing the number of ommatidia, imaging resolution, and response speed, this type of device can find broad applications in optoelectronics and robotics.”

The research work was published in Science Robotics (www.doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.adi8666).